A RECENT government study on conditions in Saudi prisons has laid out some harsh realities about the conditions encountered by those who are jailed.

There are three reasons for taking away someone’s liberty and locking them up in prison. The first is punishment. There are clear penalties for committing a crime. Those who are caught should expect to be punished appropriately. Equally, would-be criminals can see for themselves the consequences if they succumb to the temptation to commit that crime themselves. But perhaps most importantly, punishing someone by locking them up, demonstrates to decent members of society that those who endanger the social fabric by their criminal behavior are reaping the just reward for their wrongdoing.

This last really does matter, because any civilized society must rely on its police service to enforce the laws of the land. Otherwise outraged individuals will be tempted to take the law into their own hands, with the threat of anarchy that such a development brings. The message is that punishment, just as justice, must be seen to be done. Anyone who has ever suffered from, for instance a robbery, will testify to the immense satisfaction of seeing the thief caught and jailed.

The second reason for locking up a criminal is that as long as that person is behind bars, they are not on the streets able to commit further crimes. There is no getting away from the fact that, in any country, there is a core of hardened individuals for whom crime is a way of life. A profession even. No sooner do they complete one sentence and return to freedom, than they resume their felonious ways. It may be that they will avoid arrest and trial for a reasonable period. So they come to look upon their period in prison as an occupational hazard, to be embraced philosophically when they occur. For such individuals, who are wedded to a life of wrong doing, locking them up simply means that they are no longer free to behave anti-socially. In an ideal world, repeat offenders ought to be given longer and tougher sentences each time they are caught.

And then there is the third reason for jail — to rehabilitate the criminal. Clearly in the case of the professional wrongdoer, attempts at rehabilitation are probably a complete waste of time. Nevertheless, convicts can be persuaded to change their ways. Most obviously, a young person, enduring a first prison sentence is going to be amenable to ideas of character reform. No less significantly, here in the Kingdom, the program aimed at convicted terrorists has had some remarkable results in showing those duped into bigoted hatred and violence, the terrible error of their ways.

A big question around prisons is just how tough the regime ought to be. It will not please the families of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre to know that as and when they are convicted, Radovan Karadzic and his military henchman, Ratko Mladic, will be living out their sentences in a civilized Dutch prison. Inside, there will be so many amenities that the only real difference between it and a modest hotel, is that they are guests who are unable to leave but are never required to pay for their board and lodging.

According to the report on jail conditions here in Saudi Arabia, prisoners face physical and mental harassment and worse. This comes not from their guards, though there have been cases where warders have been shown to behave viciously and unjustly, but from their fellow prisoners.

It is surprising that anyone should be surprised by this reality. By their conviction for often loathsome crimes, prisoners have already demonstrated that they lack all the decent social responses and the normal moral compass. Therefore they are going to take their values, or rather lack of values, into the jail with them. And just as on the streets, criminals will establish a pecking order, so behind bars, they will do the same. Prison guards may be criticized for doing nothing to stop bullying and abuse, but then the victims actually may not thank them for any intervention. The guards are not there for every minute of the day. The bullyboys have plenty of time to take their revenge on a victim who got them into trouble.

Most people will agree that prison is not supposed to be a pleasant experience. It is meant to be both a deterrent and a punishment. While the vicious treatment of weaker prisoners by stronger convicts should not be encouraged, short of confining every convict to a cell the entire time, it can never be stopped. Like it or not, this is the reality of jail.